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October 1, 947

r . Dudley ichols 504 South lymouth Los Angeles , Ca~iforn

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(Not printed at Government expense)

United States oj America

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRES

Tuesday, July 15, 1

Mr. McDONOUGH. I have made the statem t befor\: the House that the motion- icture industry is one of the greatest ediums of influ­ence upon the people ext to our great educational instituti s. It is good to know that one of e great leaders In this industry fully realizes the tremen­dous influence th motion pictures have upon the public ind and character, and the need of the motion-picture industry carefully scrut nizing and publicizing its own releases 0 protect the public wel­fare.

Clean, w olesome motion pictures can do a grea deal of good. Inspiring pa­triotic an historical pictures can be of great be efit in preserving our national traditio s an eating better interna­tio~al u standin The reverse kind of ~Ict s can do a g t dea~ 0: .harm.

Mt oUis B. Mayer, leading mdus­tria 5t of the Nation, he of the Metro­Goldwyn-Mayer studio in Los Angeles County, reOO.ntly delive d a brilliant ad­dress be~re the N spa per Advertising Executives Association at their annual convention at San Francisco July;1, 19 ~ 7, on the subject the Motion Picture and the World Today. His address follows:

Mr. Chairman, guests of honor, m embers of t he Newspaper Advertising Executives As­sociation , to address such a dlstln~ulshed gat hering Is Indeed a privn'ege and I am deeply grateful for the honor of your kind invitation.

San Francisco, the birthplace of the United Nation's Charter, the city of hospitality, Is always a pleasant place to visit. Last week our attention was again called to the birth­place of our Constitution, Phlladelphla. These two great cities w1ll ever recall man's advancement in pOlitical science.

We have much in common, your business and mine. There are few enterprises in the country which have as much competition as the motion picture and the newspaper.

Forty years marks my experience In the motion-picture Industry in all its branches. I am like the man who adopted the pretty

, little kitten and found In a few months that he had a full-grown lion on his h ands. Motion pictures attracted me first because It waf something entirely new, and by h ard work would afford a decent living; also, because

755931-21991

80 th CONGRESS, . FIRST SESSI ON

and the World Today I k all the happiness and relaxation it

Id give to the people of the world. But those of us who pioneered In the In­

dus.t ry never dreamed that the nickelodeon was the pretty little kitten that would grow Into the lion.

Grandpa said the automobile would never supplant the horse. He would not h ave be­lieved that voices would ever circle the world and he certainly never Imagined that man would invade the domain of the birds.

Little did I dream as I opened the door of that small theater in Haverh1ll, Mass., that the motion-picture Industry would rise to such dominance in American life and cross international borders to influence the con­duct of nations.

Statesmen and scholars have referred to the screen as the greatest educat ional force in the history of the world. 1

The expenditure of some $52,000,000 an­nually in newspapers, places our Industry third on the Nation's list of advertisers. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer alone has some 14,000 theater accounts which advertise in local newspapers.

Besides ranking third as an advertiser, Hollywood news is found on many pages of your papers. Every day news services carry stories from Hollywood. There are over 500 newspaper and magazine correspondents In Hollywood representing every language and nation on earth. Hollywood rivals the Na­tion's Capital in news that attracts the world.

Beginning with the Federalist over a cen­tury and a half ago, the press has battled to preserve our American way of life; then came the screen and then the radio-two powerful aids .

In every age serious crises have arisen and conflict of opinion have engaged n ations In battle with each flther, and even in clvll wars.

Today there is an undemocratic state on the m arch. Its political philosophy is for­eign to our traditions.

The crisis we face-and few have ever equaled it. It is not a battle among our­selves; it is not a battle between two coun­tries, but it threatens the way of life upon this planet; it threatens our fundamental concepts of human rights and liberty.

More precious than our lives we hold our liberty-a liberty that means free speech, free press, the right to assemble and remon­strate against real or Imaginary wrongs, and the right to worship at any shrine; a liberty that means free enterprises and unlimited opportunity; a liberty which lights the foot­steps of the poor boy born in a floor less cabin in Kentucky as brightly as the pathway of the boy born to wealth and social position .

These liberties, won on many battleflelds, must be preserved. This serious responsibil­ity we share in common with the newspapers and the radio.

The inventive genius of man has annihi­lated distance, and two great oceans which In the past have Insured our security no

longer afford us that protection. If the slightest doubt ex.lsted, Pearl Harbor dis­pelled it.

A silent, white flash and a hundred thou­sand people died at Hiroshima. Yes; we split the atom. A new undreamed-of force of destruction had been let loose in the world, struck terror in men's hearts, caused m1l1tary leaders and statesmen to change all their plans of warfare.

A powerful nation challenges and dis­credits the liberties I have mentioned and seeks to spread Its Influence to dominate the lives of men and women In smaller nations. No one can dispute the right of any people to select their own form of government • • • but the right to force its own gov­ernment upon another people is disputed. This has never been the American policy. We are proud of our traditions. Cuba and the Philippines came to us by right of con­quest, but we did not destroy them or en­slave their people.

Right now we are doing everything possible to help the Ph1l1ppines recover from the staggering blows of the last war-we not only m ade the Ph1l1pplnes free and gave them all the rights of an independent nation-but today, our Government is assisting the Phll­ippines In rebuilding her Industries, her buildings, her roads, her schools, her churches-and to make that country self­sustaining-that her people may once again enjoy the prosperity attained under our protection.

We encourage trade relations with Cuba; we extended credit to the country; our people purchased Cuban bonds-and the great guns of our' Nation prot ect Its inde­pendence-that is the American way.

Our system of free enterprise has provided free schools for our children, free parks, se­curity for unemployment and old age, and has supplanted fear in their hearts with happiness. The b1llions of dollars in savings accounts; the billions invested In Govern­ment bonds; the 30.000,000 automobiles; the many thousands who, each day, attend our great national sport, the baseball game, cheering and applauding; the millions who attend the theaters and other amusements; it Is all evidence that all groups and all classes enjoy the freedom and prosperity of America.

We play-we work-there Is a deep thr1lI1n watching ten, twenty or thirty thousand men and women laughing and Joking, swinging their dinner pails, as they enter the great factories of the Nation, or leave after the day's toil.

Motion pictures portraying these actual scenes in American life are welcomed by all liberty-loving countries • • • and frowned upon and denounced wherever lib­erty is suppressed.

The reason behind the dictators action 'Is readlly understood-If his people were to see and learn of the freedom of the working

2 men and women in a free country, it would destroy his power.

The comfortable homes of the working men-the ch11dren playing In the parks, or running to and from school-the whole fam-11y riding In their own au tomobile, or bask­Ing In the sun on trie beaches, or at the lake-would cause his working people to de­mand a similar way of life.

Yet, this same Nation welcomes with open arms The Grapes of Wrath, Tobacco Road, and similar films, which portray only a small por­tion of American life, which Is certainly less typical. ,

Under our system, Industrial life has been so organized that In a few months our fac­tories turned from the products of peace to the engines of war and, with a united front, labor and capital together made great sacri­fices In a common cause. We won. We preserved liberty, not only for ourselves, but our our allies.

We preserved our way of life, not for one class, but for all classes.

What can the motion-picture Industry do In this world enCircling confilct? The mes­sage of the screen reaches apprOXimately :;:3:;,000,000 persons throughout the world, In 86,640 theaters.

There is a heavy responslbllity upon the producers of motion pictures. A motion­picture can not only afi'ord entertainment, but be of educational value. In this crisiS, It can portray fairly and honestly the American wrJ.y Of life , and can be a powerful Infiuence In the lives of the millions In other coun­tries who are either denied access to our way of life, or who have never had the oppor­tunity of experiencing It.

This Is hot propaganda, unless one would say that presenting to the world our way of life, our freedom , our opportunities, our de­fense of liberty, our emphasis on the dignity of the human being Is propaganda.

Propaganda, as such, should never mas­querade under the cloak of entertainment. Subjects of controversy should be clearly designated.

Our Industry h as epened wide Its gates and welcomed talent from every corner of the earth. There are 125 d ifferent arts, crafts, and trades In our industry. There is no discrimination In the selection of talent. In whatever country we find t alent we pre­sent It to the people of the screen. You can easily recall the names of artists of every nationality: Garbo and Bergman came from Sweden; Garson and Coleman from England ; Boyer from France-these are just a few. Some of these artists have wen the highest honors our Industry can eonfer.

Our American talent comes not only from great cities but from farms and towns. A little town in Ohio gave us Clark Gable; from , the Midwest plains of Montana came a cow-

. boy-Gary Cooper. Another chap waited on tables to pay bis way through school, and nearly everyone knows him-Gregory Peck. A little girl with enthusiasm and great am­bition found an outlet for her talent on the screen, and millions ' acclaim Judy Garland.

755931-21991

CQN~ftESSIONAL RECORD L ~ 't' ..

Our,.!ndustry. is confronted with as keen cOlllpetl9l0n ts arl'y of the great enterprises of this faintly. We welcome competition. Foreign films are exhibited In American thea­ters on the same basis as our own. There Is no quota. There Is only a nominal tariff. They fiow In as freely as the air. This is not true of American films sent to foreign coun­tries. In most otber countries there Is a tariff and a tax, which places our films at a disadvantage to the films produced In those countries.

Our films are not confined to depicting American life. The great film Mrs. Miniver portrayed the courageous and heroic resist­ance of the British during the blitz. That film gave renewed courage to men and women who were engaged In the battle for freedom all over the world. That was no imaginary epic. Thap was a truthful, pictorial demon­stration of the undaunted courage and stanch hearts of the British-fighting for survival.

In all events, we do our utmost to try to show people of the world In the best light possible.

Last year more than 400 feature films were 'produced In this country. England made more than 100, with more than 300 produced in other parts of the world.

During tbe war we supplied all of our films-some 43,189 prints of feature films and 33,217 shorts-to the armed forces over­seas. This was a contribUtion to the war effort, and was furnished free of all cost to the Government.

Again the Government has called upon us, and we are now supplying pictures to be exhibited to the peoples of occupied coun­tries. The men and women of Germany, Japan, Austria, and Korea are getting, in many instances for the first time a glimpse of the true America. It Is a contribution to world peace-to a better understanding­among all peoples of the earth.

More recently the motion picture Invaded another field . . It has stimulated the desire of people to purchase new Inventions, to adopt new styles, and to desire the machin­ery . they see In the farmers' fields. A new design In a house, a new style In a woman's hat or hair-do, or a new design In a dress­all these are popularized through the mo­tion-picture screen.

I recall a film, It Happened One Night, where Clark Gable pulled ofi' his shirt and there was no undershirt beneath It. Im­mediately hundreds of American boys stopped wearing undershirts. And we heard emphatically from 'the manufacturers of undershirts. In another film, however, Clark wore an old turtle-neck sweater. Instantly turtle-neck sweaters became the rage, and manufacturers found an unprecedented de­mand which they had not had In years.

More and more the world becomes one unit. No nation can sell and not buy. No nation can buy and not sell. Our Industry Is sup­porting the Government's program at the World Trade Conference In Geneva.' The barbed-wire entanglements erected at the borders of nations must be untangled If the

countries are to be prosperous and the peo­ple happy.

We have many problems in the motlon­picture industry. We have made errors, the same as any other business. We are ear­nestly striving to Improve every picture that Is exhibited-to uphold the high moral standards of America. Great historical films have been produced; great films showing the advancement of science and art, and films which stimulate the Imagination to reach out Into unconquered worlds.

Another field the motion picture has en­tered Is the schoolroom. It has been estab­lished that many subjects can be taught more easily and with greater rapidity In the school­room through the medium of motion pic­tures.

Someday the American school will have talking blaCkboard!! which wlIl be as common as today's blackboards and Chalk. I realize this means redesigning classrooms so that films can be adequately shown. It means training teachers to use films Intelligently; research to determine what film content Is most acceptable and most Important in edu­cation.

We reach into every community in the Nation and become a part of the com­munity-the motion picture theater Is an Integral part of community life. Out Of every dollar that Is taken In by the cashier of the local theater, 65% Is paid out for rentals, local advertising, local employees, local taxes and other local expenses.

In common with the newspapers and radiO, the screen fights the battle for freedom of speech. Jefferson said "that Government Is best which governs least." Intelligent self­disciplined Industry Is our greatest · assur­ance that the freedoms guaranteed us by our Constitution will not be denied.

By maintaining high standards, by ad­hering to the truth, we can preserve the right to this freedom.

Yes, the motion picture industry has grown Into a mighty institution, reckoned In billions of dollars. Yet, It Is stlI! In Its Infancy. It has hardly begun to use its faclI~ties to entertain, to educate, and to carry its message of good will and happiness to all the people of the world. In my opin­Ion, Its possibilities of power and Infiuence are greater than any other single instru­mentality.

The responsibility, ladles and gentlemen, Is great. We all appreciate that responsi­bility. It Is my deep and solemn conviction that the Maker of the universe Intended that men should be free and not slaves; that the peoples of the earth should enjoy the bountiful treasures which Nature has placed under every sky; that men and women should be happy and not depressed, and there should be a song of peace and good wlI! In every heart.

We pray God that we may be Worthy of the stewardship entrusted to us, and do our bit to realize these dreams.

U, S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1147

/

{

October 6,1947

/

1r. David O. Selznick, 1 00 Tower r v Drive,

everly lil+s, California

Dear David:

/ I d enly appreci ted the manner 1n which you took over at ' the dinner and yo r kind and helpful i4troduction.

I also found our personal conversation at the dinner table to be very stl ul ti g and helpful. I will look fO~lard to oppor-tunity of discussing some of these ideas further with you at the next convenient opnortunity.

Sincere regards,

RES db

\

Gctob r 6,1947

·r . Louis B. ayer 910 N. enedlct Canyon

v rly Hills, aliforn1a

Dear r . ayer :

It was a stimulating experience to confer with you on Thursday morning, October 2nd. '

I ~ill endeavor to aevelop the issues 1n the manner which you suggested. I ill also come out to Los Angeles again the latter part of t.is mont and take advantage of7your kind

v·t on for technical assistance at the studio.

I have just received a very enc~uraging report from Georgia and Colorad6.

Sincere regards,

HES db

t th arge 0 t if. e accoun 0 o • CA ! • . '" C $ f CLASS OF SERVICE DESIRED \.

WESTERN ./ " DOMESTIC CABLE CHECK

1206 TELEGRAM 1 OROINARY

DAY URGENT LETTER RATE ACCOUNTING INFORMATION

SERIAL DEFERRED

UNI ON NIGHT NIGHT LETTER LETTER

Palrona should check clau of aervioe TIME ALEO dtMind; othuwise the message will be

'" tralUroilted as a telegram or JOSEPH L. EGAN

"\. I' ordinary cableeram. PRESIDENT

Send the followtng telegram, subject to the terms on bac/e hereof, which are hereby agreed to

. 24 S ER 1947

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October 11, 1947

r. ervyn LeRoy 332 St. Cloud Road, Bel-Air Los Angeles 24; California

Dear r. Le oye

I very mu~h a prec1 ted t e onnortunity . of seeing you personally at the dinner at etro-Goldwyn-'ayer tudi 1 st week.

It oC'c " ion and erou hospitality

Best regards to you nd I ill hope to see you again 1n the not too distant future.

Sincerely,

RES db

/

I

October 11, 1947

r. E. J. Mannix , 516 North Linden Drive everly 11il1s , California

Dear r.anriix:

I very much a~~reciate t tun1ty of seeing you ~ersonally at the dinner at etro-Go1dwyn- eyer at dl last eek.

It t e many courter; ill

e oyabla ceasion and and . arous hospitality r d.

Best regards to you and will ho e to see you again n tot 0 d stant future.

Sine rely,

HES db

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October 11, 19~7

r. Tom Lewis, 280 Carolwood Drive Los Angeles 24, California

D ar r. Lew s:

It was a d1sti ct ~leasure to see you personally and to have dinner with you and the other d1 tin is ed st at the [etro-Go1dwyn- ayer Studios last wee •

I thorou hly enj y visit a d continu to have Ie ant memorie the generou hos it 11ty th t

•

ill of

accorded

Best regards, and I will look for ard to seeing you personally again.

incerel "

HES db

•

October 11, 1947

r. Al Lichtman 704 North Palm Drive Bev~rly Hills, Calilornia

Dear Ur. Lichtman:

It as a distinct pleasur to ee you personally and to hav dinner 1th you and the other d1 t1n lsbed gue ts at the etro-Goldwyn-Mayer tUd10s la t e k .

thoroughly e j y my 151 d 111 continue to hav pI as nt memorie ot

, -

th generous hosp1t lity t at s ecorded me.

Best regards, and I ill look forward to seeing you personally again.

ncer ly,

RES db

/

/

October 11,19"'7

r. Atwater Kent, 801 Bel-A1r Road, Los Angeles 2~, Californ1a

Dear Mr. rent:

I very much anpreciated the op~ortun1ty of seeing you nersonally at th dinner at etro-Goldwyn- ayer Stl 10s last week.

I as a thoroug ly enjoyable occasion and the many courtesl and g nerous hospitalIty

111 be 10n re em ere •

st regards to you and will h pe to see y u a ann t not too istan ture.

S1ne rely,

HES db

October '11, 1947

Mr. Sam Katz 1700 Lexington Road, Beverly H1l1s, California

/

Dear r. Katz: •

It as a distinct pleasqre to see you ersonally and to have dinner 1th you

and the otherdi ingu1shed guests at th ' etro-Goldwyn- ayer Studios last eek.

thoroughl y stan 7-111 continue to have p asant memories of t e generous os i ality th t a accorded me.

Best regards, and I will look forward to seeing you personally again.

i c rely,

RES db

/

bC'ob 11, 1~+7

Dr. ~ddie Jones, lxth a.d Grand 'tree s,

Los Angeles, California

Dear Dr. Jonesr

\

I Y ry mueh appr eiated th opportunity of e ing you p rsonally at the dinner at etro-~old n- ayer studios last week.

It was a thoroughly enjoyabl occasion and the many courtesi s and generous hos itality will be long remembered.

B t regards to you and I ill hope to see you again in the not too dIstant future.

Sincerely,

HES db

October 11, 1947

I

r. 'yron Fox, 320 oouth ~Testlaket

Los Angeles, California

Dear iUr. Fox:

It was a distinct pleasure to see you ersonally and to have dinne.r with you

and the other ld stinguished guests at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios last eek.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and will continue to have ple sant memories of the generous hospital ty that was accorded me. . .1

Best regards, and I will look forward to seeing you personally again.

Sincerely,

HES db

/

etober 11, 1 7

r. Cornwall Jacl son, • V alter ~hom~son Company

1549 orth ine treet, . Hollywood, California

D r ~r. Jackson:

It was a distinct pl asure to see you . ersona 1y nnd to have dinner Ith ou and t e other distinguished guests at t e etro- 0 dwyn- ayer tu ios last

k.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and will conti~ue to hav le ant memories of the generous hospitality t~at was accorded me.

Best regards, and I will look forward to seeing you personally agaln. -

Sincerely,

lIES db

,

Octob r 11, 1941

'Ir. Henry Ginsb r , 918 I orth r hi ttier Dr! ve Beverly Bills, California

Dear Mr . Ginsberg:

I very much appreciated the opportunity of eing you personally at -the dinner at

etro- oldwyn- ayer Studios last week.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable occasion and th many court s1 s and generous hospitality will b long rememb red • . I

Best regards to you and I will hope to see you again 1n the not too distant tuture.

\

Sincerely"

RES db

/

I

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